Colin Thomas is a Charlottesville, Richmond and central Virginia area portrait and event photographer specializing in on-location photography, including: couples and engagement, corporate headshots and other PR portraits, seniors and other graduates, families and babies, parties, and business events.

Colin Thomas started photography at the age of seven, when his father gave him a Brownie Box Camera. He quickly took a liking to it and soon had established a darkroom in the attic at home, shooting pictures of all his friends and school events.

His first nationally published images appeared in the notorious OZ Schoolkids’ Issue which he co-edited with a group of under-18′s in 1970. He went to art college in Canterbury, Kent, where his art tutor, Ian Dury, recruited him as roadie for his band Kilburn and the High Roads. Later, Ian advised him to pursue a career in photography by looking for work as a photographer’s assistant.

He soon got a job and worked for a wide variety of different photographers for about four years before renting studio space in London’s Covent Garden to start his own business.

Since then he has produced pictures for a huge range of advertising, publishing, celebrity and mail-order clients, shooting fashion, people and product photos all over the world. He now works from his own studio in Fulham, west London.

In 1993 he started using Adobe Photoshop to manipulate and enhance his photography, becoming an instant convert to the power and possibilities of digital imaging. He was a founder member of the London Digital Imaging Group, and in1998 he was an early professional user of digital cameras, abandoning film almost immediately in favour of the new technology.

He has continued to keep the latest digital technology at the heart of his image making, now incorporating computer-generated 3D images into his photos.